Ruth Slenczynska
Encyclopedia
Early life
Ruth was born in SacramentoSacramento, California
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. Her father, Joseph Slenczynski was a violinist. Pushed by her parents and starting at age three, Slenczynska was forced to practice the piano relentlessly. When she was four, she began her piano studies in Europe later studying with Artur Schnabel
Artur Schnabel
Artur Schnabel was an Austrian classical pianist, who also composed and taught. Schnabel was known for his intellectual seriousness as a musician, avoiding pure technical bravura...
, Egon Petri
Egon Petri
Egon Petri was a classical pianist.-Biography:Petri's family was Dutch and he was born a Dutch citizen, but he was born in Hanover in Germany and was brought up in Dresden. His father was a professional violinist who taught his son that instrument. Petri played in the Dresden Court Orchestra and...
, Alfred Cortot
Alfred Cortot
Alfred Denis Cortot was a Franco-Swiss pianist and conductor. He is one of the most renowned 20th-century classical musicians, especially valued for his poetic insight in Romantic period piano works, particularly those of Chopin and Schumann.-Early life and education:Born in Nyon, Vaud, in the...
, Josef Hofmann, and Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
.
Debut
She played her debut in BerlinBerlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
at age six, and made her debut in Paris with a full orchestra at just 11 years of age. She became extremely popular in Europe however the strain of endless practice and the touring schedule imposed upon her by her father caused her great emotional stress and by the age of fifteen she withdrew from performing.
Career
Slenczynska was accepted to the University of California, Berkeley and while there, she met fellow student George Born. The two married after a short engagement in 1944, but were divorced ten years later. Slenczynska resumed her concert career establishing herself as a well-known pianist. In 1964 she accepted a full time position at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville as Artist-in-Residence, a title she retained until 1987.She married again in 1967, this time to a fellow faculty member and professor of political science at Southern Illinois.
In 1957 she published a book of memoirs, Forbidden Childhood, which deals with life as a child prodigy, and a book on piano technique, Music at Your Fingertips: Aspects of Pianoforte Technique.
In recent years Ruth Slenczynska's career has been resurgent in Japan, where she currently records and performs.